Presentations

 (AD and GM demonstrate what a good presentation looks like)

You are going to research material for a presentation next class on a domesticated plant or animal of your choosing (e.g. bees, cows, grapes, goats, apples, cats, cotton, camels, strawberries, chicken, rice, sheep, tomatoes, silk worms, potatoes, etc. – we already presented wheat and corn). You can work alone or with one partner.

Each presenter or group of presenters must find the following information for their presentation:

1 – The name and a picture (on cell phone or flash drive) of your domesticated plant or animal.
2 – The name and a picture of its wild ancestor.
3 – Its place of origin.
4 – When it was first domesticated and by whom.
5 – When it was first transported on each continent.
6 – An anecdote about this plant or animal.

The Neolithic Revolution

We saw the sustainability challenges facing hunter gatherer societies, and notably the rapid hunting to extinction of most megafauna worldwide. The next chapter of our story brings us to an innovation that would have a profound effect on the ability of people to feed themselves over the long run, without depleting their resources: agriculture, which came with the domestication of animals and plants. 

Read Wild Thing on Aeon by Jacob Mikanowski, about the domestication of animals, and answer questions.

The domestication of wheat 12000 years ago in Turkey:




The domestication of Corn 9000 years ago in Mexico:



The geographic origins of the world's food crops: